Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Sid Daoud stands up after getting a shoutout from former President Donald Trump at a rally on Aug. 9, 2024, in Bozeman. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan)
The recent extreme pressure exerted on Sid Daoud, the Libertarian candidate for Senate, by the national and state Republican party highlights both his courage and a troubling increase in what can only be called fake candidates as both major parties continue to exert their stranglehold on American politics.
As reported this week : “Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Sid Daoud told the Montana State News Bureau that top Republicans from the Montana GOP chairman to Donald Trump encouraged him to drop out of the contest.”
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the GOP honchos, including Sen. Steve Daines, claim they weren’t actually asking Daoud to drop out of the campaign. But get this, the Sheehy campaign, his actual opponent in the Senate race, sent a private plane to fly him from the Flathead to Bozeman for the Trump rally and face-to-face meetings.
Even worse, he was told Trump would bring him up on stage at the rally if he would announce he was dropping out of the race and endorse Sheehy. And sure enough, Trump did his best to point out Daoud in the crowd and announce “he’s going to be giving you a very nice surprise soon.”
But guess what? Apparently Trump and his fellow GOP moguls simply expected Daoud to be like most of the specious people they deal with and that he’d kiss the ring, step aside and accept the “seat at the table” both Daines and the state GOP chairman promised him. Trump even blatantly asked him: “So we have a deal?”
Much to their surprise and Daoud’s credit as an honest Montanan and honorable, real candidate, he refused to drop out of the race and his name will be on the ballot along with Tester’s and Sheehy’s for the Senate seat. As he put it: “Montana Libertarians have heard this before and I don’t think you can go back in time to any Libertarian that dropped out of the race and is still around. It’s a tactic that they use that might sound good but it never pans out.”
Yet, while Daoud deserves kudos for his true commitment running as a candidate for his Libertarian Party, the same can’t be said for any number of other fake candidates in this election cycle.
Montana’s Attorney General Austin Knudsen recruited a friend to “run” against him in the primary — who then admitted he never intended to campaign against Knudsen. The same thing happened on the Democrat side when two Helenans filed to supposedly challenge Ryan Busse in the primary — but didn’t bother campaigning.
In a move paralleling the GOP’s move to get Daoud off the ballot, the Green Party candidate for the Senate race dropped out on the last day to do so. Sources say it was due to pressure from the Democrats so he wouldn’t siphon votes from Tester. Given Tester’s poor record on the environment, it’s certainly likely those prioritizing greater environmental protection might vote for a Green Party candidate. Only they can’t now and it’s pretty hard to deduce anything other than that the candidate never had any real intention of challenging either Tester or Sheehy.
In our heated political atmosphere we hear time and again that “Democracy is on the line.” That’s true, but fake candidates are already undermining our democracy. They’re dishonest about their intentions, they betray the people who actually think they’re serious, and they rig the races to get around the campaign financing restrictions so the “real” candidates can haul in both primary and general election donations.
If we want real democracy, it’s time to let the dishonorable and duplicitous fake candidates know we’re on to their shameful schemes — and we do not approve.
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